So my brother finally showed up to pick up his daughter at 9:30: I'd had her since 7:30 this morning. SO TIRED.

But the chocolate chip cookies came out great. And she was happy to eat two servings of plain pasta. No butter, no pasta sauce: just plain noodles. WTF. Kids are weird.

And then I let her watch too much Dora the Explorer.

Ugh Suela, that's a long sitting gig. You got to build up endurance.

Seafood fest sounds awesome Laura!

I drove to the outlet mall this afternoon. It took approximately forever, as there was tons of traffic. Then I got there and walked in and out of every dang store I thought MIGHT have something interesting (including many stores I would not normally go to). I contemplated a dress at Banana Republic (very pretty, fit my waist and hips gorgeously...but I would've had to alter the top, and as it was silk, I have no idea when I would wear it, and it's not worth both buying and altering a dress I won't wear), but the only thing I ended up buying was a pair of shoes that I got last week from Zappos, because they were $15 cheaper (so I'll return the Zappos pair). A whole outlet mall! And I only bought shoes I already owned! WTF.

I stopped at a different mall (non-outlet) on the way home and bought teavana stuff. Expensive, but they had a travel mug 75% off! And I thought about staying there and watching a movie, but was hoping to meet new friends at a dance. Only I ran home and got dolled up, and they didn't show up. Oops. But ran into a different friend, and we ended up at a different bar with some of her friends. So that was cool. And then we had a hot dog from the street vendor, and now I'm trying to drink water so I'm not hungover int he morning. Because somehow, these days one damn drink does it for me. Argh.

meara, you are such the anti-introvert that I don't even aspire to actually be you. But, damn, you rock. A lot.

We're in hour 34 of the Trivia contest. We're hovering around 20th place out of 400 or so teams. I've had about 3 1/2 hours sleep in the last 40 hours.

So, apparently raping a child from age 6-9 is acceptable, but terminating the resultant pregnancy over fears that a 9 year old might not survive bearing twins gets you excommunicated. [link]

I think there are some senior Vatican officials in need of a good exorcism. Where are the Winchester boys when you need them?

I can't look at that link, Calli, way too upsetting. Humans can really suck.

Excellent days for Matt, meara, and Cash! Not envious of your day, Suela. Way too exhausting! Too old for that stuff..

Another busy day. Heading across the alley to visit family, drop off truck at good truck repair place, pick up walker, then head back for seafood and festing. Since I won't be driving for a couple weeks it seemed a good time to get some overdue repairs done on DH's truck. A bit more coffee before hitting the road though.

Cass, anytime! We always have a room available. Even if I am in perpetual motion working mode you are welcome to chill on the patio and watch boats go by.

In conclusion, cold pizza still excellent breakfast.

I know it still says nothing good about the Church, but my first feeling on clicking the link was a flood of sick relief that this was the same story of hateful dumbass hierarchy bullshit from three years ago, and that they hadn't gone on to do the same thing all over again to an entirely separate little girl.

Also (very thinly) heartening to read that the doctor who'd been excommunicated said he'd still be attending church same as always and they could feel free to stop him if they really thought he'd committed such an awful sin, and a quick Google search hasn't turned anything up since then but the guy presiding and speaking at local Rotary meetings and such. No recantations on his part, no hierarchy smackdowns: he called their bluff and they shut up. Cowards. If you're going to be narrow, nasty and evil, at least stick the landing.

Good for the doctor! He sounds pretty awesome.

JZ and others, have you seen Sullivan's coverage?

The Vatican vs American Nuns

Hard to believe it’s a coincidence that the Vatican moved to curb the nuns for implicit insubordination against the Bishops just as the USCCB announced a big summer series of protests for “religious liberty” keyed to categorical opposition to the Obama administration’s efforts to implement a contraception coverage mandate, particularly since LCWR has been notably willing to support compromise efforts and earlier supported the health reform legislation that authorized the mandate.